Meet Houston’s ‘MasterChef ’ finalist
Inspired by native Myanmar, Suu Khin earned place in show’s finale
On a Friday at lunchtime in her lightfilled Houston apartment, Suu Khin offers a taste of a freshly made coconut noodle soup to her husband, Charles Wong. “It’s good,” he nods. “What do you mean, good?” she quips. Her perfectionism and cooking techniques landed Khin, a 32-year-old food blogger and recipe developer, a spot as a finalist in Season 11 of “MasterChef ” on Fox. The finale airs at 7 p.m. Sept. 15.
It’s a few days before the viewers will learn her fate. Khin is wearing a navy dress with white flowers under a white apron, embroidered with her first name and the MasterChef coil logo, which she was given as one of the 15 contestants who made it past the auditions.
Specifically, it’s the coconut noodle soup, a Burmese (the largest ethnic group in Myanmar) specialty, that earned her a spot on “MasterChef.” For the taped auditions, the judges asked contestants to make a dish that truly represents them. Khin knew what she would bring to the table.
The noodle soup is tied to two of her earliest food memories. One is making curry paste with a mortar and pestle. Khin explains that Burmese curries don’t rely so much on spices but rather
on aromatics: She arduously grinds the Myanmar holy trinity of ginger, garlic and lemongrass with some shallots and cilantro.
The other food memory this soup unlocks for Khin is her mother teaching her how to extract milk from a fresh coconut — growing up, she didn’t have access to cans of coconut milk.
The soup is traditionally made with chicken, but on the show, Khin made it with shrimp. Her grandmother, Than Than, is from the Delta region of Myanmar and was a pescatarian, as the diet there revolved mostly around fish. In her household, coconut noodle soup was a seafood affair.
Judge Gordon Ramsay said it was the best dish he had tasted that night, and guest judge Emeril Lagasse called it “food of love.” The audition episode ends with the four judges fighting over the last piece of shrimp.
On Friday, as a side to the soup, Khin made laphet, a tea leaf salad that’s unique to Myanmar. Young tea leaves are stuffed in bamboo rods and buried in the ground for two weeks to ferment, then seasoned with garlic, lime and fish sauce. She’s found only one place in Houston that sells the leaves: Asian Food Market, a Burmese grocery store in Asiatown.
She quickly tosses the pungent, briny leaves with nuts, sesame seeds, garlic chips, cherry tomatoes and peanut oil to make a crunchy, umami salad.
Khin was born, raised and educated in Myanmar. She came to the U.S. in 2012 to attend graduate school at the University of Massachusetts, where she met Wong, a San Antonio native. They married in 2018, and she moved to Houston to be with him.
Khin didn’t exactly catch the cooking bug when she was young. Back then, cooking felt like a chore, something a woman needed to learn to fit societal standards. But cooking Myanmar dishes when she was in grad school was a way to reconnect with her roots.
After graduation, Khin returned to Myanmar for three years to take care of her ailing grandmother. At 96 years old at the time, she couldn’t cook anymore, but she could give her granddaughter direction, teaching her the family’s recipes verbally — and, as home-cook elders often do, vaguely.
Around this time, Khin started her blog, Burmalicious. Dish by dish, she translated her grandmother’s instructions into actual recipes people could reproduce, publishing them alongside the stories behind the food and tidbits about her culture. She felt the need to preserve and promote her native cuisine, which she says is so often overlooked.
Khin says Myanmar is surrounded by culinary powerhouses such as China, Thailand and India. It became her duty to shine a light on the food of her home country throughout her “MasterChef ” journey and, in the process, honor her grandmother.
“I want to let food tell our stories,” she said. “Usually, cuisine is the first experience of learning about a country and a culture. Food is a universal language.”
She had always been a big fan of “MasterChef.” In fact, she learned English ingredient names and cooking terms while watching “MasterChef Australia.” When a casting scout messaged her on Instagram inviting her to take part in the open calls in Houston, she thought it was a joke at first.
They shot almost 10 episodes before the pandemic shut production down. During the pause, Khin did a lot of research and practiced in the kitchen. By the time taping resumed, she was more than ready to take the competition all the way.
Throughout the episodes and challenges, Khin wowed the judges with her Myanmar-inflected dishes, such as a gingerand kumquat-glazed monkfish, and a coconut and vanilla panna cotta she dedicated to her grandmother. By then, Khin tearfully explained when she presented the dessert to the judges, Than Than could no longer eat solid food.
Sadly, her grandmother passed away two months ago, at the age of 101, and did not get to see how far she came in the competition.
Khin is the most grateful for her fanbase. During the course of the show, she saw her Instagram following grow from 4,000 to more than 95,000. She is especially fond of her cheerleaders in Myanmar. After a military coup in February of this year, Khin says many of her supporters at home see her as “the brightest star in the darkest times.”
She has become keenly aware that she is representing her home in the “MasterChef ” kitchen.
“I want to win it for the country,” she said.
Khin will be facing two other contestants in the finale, Kelsey Murphy and Autumn Moretti. She’s having a watch party on Wednesday with her husband and sister-in-law, where she plans to cook some food and maybe head to their go-to place downtown, Bovine & Barley.
When “MasterChef ” wraps up, Khin wants to write a cookbook highlighting Myanmar recipes and continue the popups and private events she’s been hosting as the show airs. Eventually, she wants to have her own restaurant in Houston. But not just any restaurant.
“I want to open the first Burmese restaurant with a Michelin star,” she said. “I want a Burmese restaurant in every major city around the world.”
Khin’s ultimate goal, however, is to create food experiences that are a vehicle for people learning more about Myanmar and gaining a deeper appreciation for the diversity of its cuisine and culture.